where is edited image

Using iPhoto 11 and editing RAW files in Photoshop, where do the edited JPEG/TIFF files go when saved? The oringal RAW/NEF file is in the iPhoto Event, but I can't find the edited version. I thought it saved to the Event, but if not, where?

Additional comment: I see in older threads reference to the iPad "Library" and possibly a "modified" folder? Is so, how do I have to exit iPhoto and go into the "library" some other way? I'm using Mountain Lion if that complicates/simplifies this...

You can process your Raw with a 3rd Party app like ACR or Photoshop. But iPhoto does not handle this gracefully and it's a bit of a kludge.

First off set your preferred app as an external editor in iPhoto:

You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.

Note that iPhoto sends a copy of the file to Photoshop, so when you save be sure to use the Save command, not Save As... If you use Save As then you're creating a new file and iPhoto has no way of knowing about this new file. iPhoto is preserving your original anyway.

Next: In the iPhoto Preferences -> Advanced, elect to use Raw with your External editor:

Now when you go to edit the Raw it will be sent to your external editor.

Now for the kludge:

You cannot save a Raw. The work you do must be output to a new file, in a new format (jepg, tiff, whatever). However, as the External Editor is making this new file iPhoto has no knowledge of its existence. Therefore you must save it to the desktop and then import it back to iPhoto as a new file.

This means that you will have your Original Raw and the processed version in iPhoto but they will not be recognised as version and original. iPhoto will see them as two separate shots.

LarryHN, I've got iPhoto set up to process the RAW files in Photoshop CS4.

Basically, I'm saving the camera folder and renaming it, deleting the images I don't want and then processing individual images in PS. Since I keep a "master" edited TIFF of the RAW, then do several versions of the same image (B&W, composite etc), the task is keeping the original RAW, edited master, and versions all tied together.

I've set up Smart Albums with keywords for the various file types, so the only gap in the workflow is going out of iPhoto and bringing the edited files back in.

I didn't "put them" anywhere, I just saved them. Then iPhoto assigned them to a Library folder I couldn't even find until going in through Finder > iPhoto Library and eventually finding the "show package contents" command, and from there I had to drill down through eight levels and then manually scan through a pile of non-sequential OS-assigned file numbers buried in the "Modified" folder.

I'm pretty much up on PS and it's file saving conventions, so if he was referring to that end of the process the comment wasn't really germane.

My issue is that once that folder is in iPhoto and the PS-edited file is saved back to that folder, it disappears into the Apple OS filing system. That's fine for archiving completed images but not so good for intermediate work-in-progress images where the RAW image, the "master" and versions may all come into play. I suspect that iPhoto/Aperture were not designed originally to work with RAW files and every update since has been an attempt to "kludge" it together and it just doesn't work well.

In any case, the comment that the file was where I "put it," as is sometimes the case on forums from higher-level participants, was a bit condesceding. We come here for advice from more experienced Apple users; usually it's good, solid advice based on both experience and a desire to help, so we all learn and benefit. Sometimes not so much.

Well whe you save a photo you specify where it goes - either by save where it goes back to where it cam from or by save as where you specifiy where it goes - no one here knows what you did or what you typed - it goes where you told it to

Sorry that you fine that "condesceding" but it is a fact - no one here is a mind reader - we have no idea what you did - but where every you specificed to save it is saved

Yes. Once it's been saved it's very hard to find and move out of the library unless you know which photos you've edited that way. If you do the select the photo, use the File ➙ Show in Finder ➙ Original menu option and that will take you to the folder with the original RAW file and, hopefully, the edited jpg version. Then you can move it to the Desktop and import as a new file.

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